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I made a video demonstrating one of my favorite nibs: the "Blade Turk" custom grind by Mark Bacas from nibgrinder.com

The nib is sort of a super-ultra-fine architect grind, which means the downstrokes are thin and the cross strokes are wide... but not very wide, being so fine.

Here's a gallery of images showing the pen, the nib, and some art I made with it.

The shape is curved a bit, so the line variation changes based on the angle as you use the pen.It's amazing. The nib is on a TWSBI 580alr which is like the 580al except with some trim differences and a ribbed grip section.

It's a great pen, great nib, and I definitely recommend Mark Bacas's nib services for modifications or repair. I will definitely go through him again for more custom pen work...

​I’m back! The game company I work for hit some turbulence and laid off half the studio. I’m still there but it took a while to adjust. Getting back to my own work now.This was drawn with my Sailor King of Pen (M). What a pen! My Royal Tangerine 1911s is to the left for size comparison.

"Flying in the sky with a lady in its arms,The Platform's heading fast out to the farm.She was harmed unknowingly and now she will become a seed,From which the platforms now will feed until they breed."

This was drawn with fountain pens (see below) and colored with Procreate using my iPad. Seriously, I just can't get enough of this app. My iPad has become a digital sketchbook, portable and fun.

Digital is great but I'll always do my final line art in fountain pen. This one was drawn with a Sailor King of Pen (M) and a Sailor 1911L (EF) using Pilot black ink. I suppose it's sacrilege to use Pilot ink in a Sailor, but I have some Kiwa Guro arriving any day now.

"When this guy was chosen as a host he felt like such a winner. But what he didn't know is these things would eat him up for dinner."

This began as a fountain penned ink drawing but something was missing. So I scanned it in and it turned out a background is just what it needed. That's the magic of digital, and Procreate - you can just explore until you find the magic.

I drew these guys with a Pilot Custom 823 FA and Platinum Carbon Black ink. The FA nib has a good drawing width on watercolor paper - one of my favorites. It's a soft nib but I don't use the line variation, just some nice shock absorption with each downstroke.

​The Carbon Black ink is out-of-this-world good, though being pigmented I fear keeping it in too many pens.I drew these guys with a Pilot Custom 823 FA and Platinum Carbon Black ink. The FA nib has a good drawing width on watercolor paper - one of my favorites. It's a soft nib but I don't use the line variation, just some nice shock absorption with each downstroke. The Carbon Black ink is out-of-this-world good, though being pigmented I fear keeping it in too many pens.

The man with a vast red hat met a flower on the pad and asked, "Are you my dad?" The flower said, "No. I'm not the one, but I'll pretend I'm your dad if you'll pretend you're my sun."

The sketch was drawn with a Sailor 1911s Royal Tangerine fountain pen (Fine nib.) Here it is pictured with its sister pen, the Sailor 1911s Fresca Blue EF. These are gorgeous little pens with great nibs.

This is my Doodle Addicts "Doodle Caravan" drawing challenge. Join the fun at doodleaddicts.com! Drawn and colored with Procreate using my new iPad Pro. Seriously, I can't get over how good this app is. The user interface, the brushes, the stability, the file handling, the import-export, the layers, the customization -- all of it. It's nearly perfect.​

“Don’t Panic. War Is Okay as Long as It’s Organic.” Drawn on my new iPad Pro using Procreate. This is quite an app.I used a Cintiq years ago but it was an old one with about 1/3rd of an inch of parallax (distance between the pen and the screen.) The new iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil is a dream machine, though... A real joy to draw with!

This one was drawn on Strathmore mixed-media paper and colored with Holbein watercolors. This paper is amazing, though it's not really for watercolor. It's challenging and unforgiving to work with in this regard, but I love drawing on it. It's very smooth with just enough texture to grip your pen to the surface.

I spend a lot of time in Google Maps just "driving around" and looking at places I can't actually visit in real life. I particularly like Mexico, for some reason, and this drawing was inspired by something odd happening between a man and some police officers there. I do believe that was his truck.

I drew this with my Pilot Custom 823 loaded with an EF nib taken from a 743. The ink is Noodlers #41 Brown which is great but... it takes too long to dry, really.

Here's a new drawing made with Noodlers 41 Brown ink and Holbein watercolor, 4"x6". Inked with a Pilot Custom 823 FA:

This nib width is better on watercolor paper than an EF because for whatever reason the EF is REALLY super fine. Great for details (I did the clouds with an EF) but as a general rule a Falcon SF, 743/823 FA, or Pilot F nib is better (for me) for this kind of work.

This is a scan, so it shows a little more of the paper texture than you see in real life or in the photo. Getting an accurate scan of watercolored art is definitely a challenge. In the future I'd like to own one of those special lightboxes (or build one) to photograph artwork with perfect lighting.